


A rough path

by Corny_Cornflakes



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Angst, Detectives, Emotional Manipulation, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, High School, Mind Games, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-11-08 04:54:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17974871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corny_Cornflakes/pseuds/Corny_Cornflakes
Summary: It's the year 1971. The young policeman Jim Hopper and his secretary Joyce Horowitz are investigating the mysteries of their hometown Hawkins. But there are a lot more struggles they will have to deal with (detective AU)





	1. Prologue - A new secretary

January 24th, 1971

The streets of Hawkins were covered by a thick layer of snow. Late January was always cold in central Indiana. Most people, especially the kids, loved this time of the year. Everyone organized snow ball fights and built dozens of snowmans all around the town. But that doesn’t apply to Jim Hopper, who hated getting up at five in the morning just to shovel the snow. Ugh, mornings. They were for coffee and contemplation, not for freezing weather and physical activity. Well, he had to pay for rent and hospital bills somehow.

The young policeman just came from New York, the city that never sleeps. Why would anyone even leave New York for this hell of a town? There he could start a successful career, maybe even a family, and spend the rest of his life in a nice place with a lot of possibilities. But right after he passed his last exams, Jim found out that his mother, Genevieve Hopper, became very sick. In fact the doctors said that she only had three months left. It turned out they weren’t wrong.

Hopper spend his mothers last two months and eighteen days by her side, taking care of her small trailer and cats. She passed away in late September, surrounded by nurses and doctors in her hospital bed. Watching the most important person in his life die right in front of his eyes, just after he lost his father four years earlier was heartbreaking, although he knew it would happen sooner or later. The upcoming days were tough, but he did pick himself up somehow. Jim gave away the cats to a nice and loving family and started to look out for job offers. He didn’t have another option than to stay in Hawkins, because he just didn’t have enough money to go back to NYC.

Just a week later he became a policeman at the local station. Getting this job actually turned out to be easier than he thought. Not a single employee there was as qualified as Jim Hopper was, although this didn’t change the fact that he had to take care of all the paperwork and the boring stuff first. God he hated this shit so much. The only thing that kept him going was the motivation to earn enough money to go back to New York again. But first he had to take care of his mother’s hospital bills. Unfortunately that also included getting up at five am and freezing his fingers off while trying his best not to fall asleep on his driveway. 

After what felt like hours he was finally able to start his car and drive to the local police department, the place he now called “work”. The only other place he spent the majority of his time was the one bar that was open after midnight in the entire town. After a hard day, Jim just drowned a glass of whisky after another and picked up random women, with which he would then go back to his trailer with.

Just fifteen minutes later the young policeman parked his old mustang next to the entrance of the police station. The moment he entered the building he noticed that something was different, he just didn’t know what. Also he was too lazy to ask anyone, besides everyone in there was a jerk who didn’t seem to even care about their job.

“Mornin’ Hopper”, his partner, Calvin Powell, greeted him and gave him a cheeky look. Without even taking a look at him, Jim made his ways to the coffee machine and poured himself a nice warm cup. His hands almost froze off after all that shoveling. Plus he didn’t get a lot of sleep the previous night. 

“Hey Jimmy, did you make another lady see starts last night?”, Phil Callahan, his other co-worker, joked and made some other policeman in the background laugh. He actually wasn’t wrong, he did sleep with a pretty woman from the gas station the previous day, but he didn’t even remember her name. He usually didn’t.

Instead of responding to Callahan’s stupid question, Hopper gave him an annoyed look and headed toward his desk, which was already covered with tons of piles of files. He had to wait for the coffee to kick in before he could even think about doing all this work.

“Oh come on man, don’t be mad at me!”, Phil suddenly laughed and took a seat next to him. Still ignoring his existence, Jim just forced another sip of caffeine down his throat.

“There’s some info Chief Howard wanted me to tell you. He’s leaving for a week to go see his family in Illinois. You’ll be our boss in the meantime.”

These words finally made Hopper look at his co-worker for the first time that day. 

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing too serious. You just have to take care of new cases and you can hand over the paperwork to someone else.”

“Holy crap, that’s great!”, Jim replied with a smile on his face and stood up from his seat. Not only he could work on something interesting, he also finally had the opportunity to prove himself. After Chief Howard would come back and see that he did a good job, maybe he would get a promotion or even better: a raise.

“There’s just one more thing Jimmy. There’s a woman in Howard’s office who wants to apply as the new secretary. Flo had to leave due to some private problems. Take care of her”, Callahan pointed to the big wooden door at the other side of the room and left Jim’s side to get himself another breakfast donut. 

Hopper was never good when it came to talking to other people. He had no clue what to say and freaked out after just five minutes of having a conversation with a stranger. Fuck, he can’t screw that up. That raise was just too important. 

After hesitating to move for a while, he finally decided to head towards the office. That woman can’t be left in there alone for too long. He fixed his uniform and downed his cup of coffee to the bottom. The caffeine suddenly started to wake him up. Now he was ready for his first job interview. 

Although he prepared some conversation starters and small talk topics in his head, he forgot everything the moment he opened the door and saw who was sitting on the grey chair in front of Howard’s desk. 

She had long, brown and slightly wavy hair. Her fragile and small frame was covered in clothes, which were at least two sized too big. Her huge fur coat made her look even more delicate than she already was. But the woman’s eyes caught his attention. At first they seemed to just be some dark brown eyes, but there was something about them which made Jim want to look at them for hours. 

He had met this woman before.

“Excuse me, are you Mr. Howard?”, she asked with a soft voice and put out her cigarette.

“Nope, my name is James Hopper. I’m filling in for him this week.”

He just stood there, not able to move. What the hell was he supposed to do right now? Or even more importantly: What was he supposed to say? Instead he just motioned her to sit down and took a seat on Howard’s beloved chair in front of her.

“So… I wanted to apply for the job as a secretary”, the woman started and handed him her resume, waiting for a response. He could see that she was pretty nervous.  
That was when Jim found out why she seemed to familiar to him. 

“You’re Joyce Horowitz?”, he asked and didn’t even look and her.

“That’s correct. I didn’t even know you were back in town”, Joyce replied, waiting for an explanation from his side. The moment she saw him enter the room she stopped breathing. She knew exactly who he was and couldn’t believe her own eyes.

“I came back three months ago. I didn’t even plan on staying here”, he tried as hard as possible to not show any emotions. No guilt, no sadness, no interest.

“I see. You could’ve at least stop by. Say hi to your old friend”, her face was full with disappointment. But Hopper knew exactly that they didn’t end their relationship on good terms.

“Listen Joyce, we’re here to talk about the job, not our past. Let’s focus on that”, he sighed and proceeded to read her resume. She just leaned against the chair and waited for the next questions.

“I see that you have no experience as a secretary”, Jim suddenly asked and looked her directly in her eyes.

“That’s correct. I only worked at Melvald’s as a saleswoman for half a year, but then I was too pregnant to continue working there.”

He was shocked. Joyce had a child? Why didn’t he know about that? Oh wait it actually made sense.

“I didn’t know you have a child.”

“How could you know that? I had my son after you left and we didn’t have any contact at all”, she explained with a poker face. At least she tried to not show any emotions.

“Right… so you’re married?”

“No. It’s just me and my four year old son Jonathan.”

He wanted to know more. He wanted to ask who the father was and why they aren’t together. But no, it was a job interview and he had to stay professional.

“Alright, I guess that’s all the information I need. Listen Joyce, I don’t think-“

She suddenly stood up and interrupted his speech: “Listen to me Hopper. I know that I may not be qualified enough, but you don’t even know how much I need this job. I need to feed my son. Also I’m a fast learner. I promise you that when I get this job, I’ll give my best every single. goddamn. day. Please.”

Jim expected from her to fight for what she wants. She’s always been like this. Maybe he should give her a chance? The police station really needed a new secretary anyway. 

“OK. You get the job”

Joyce was surprised. In fact she didn’t know what to say. She just stood there, with her mouth slightly hanging and waiting for a “just kidding” or “you really believed that?”.

“Joyce, are you alright?”, Jim asked, interrupting the awkward silence between them.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just… thank you. When should I start?”

“Is tomorrow eight am ok?” He gave her a little smile to not seem too harsh anymore.

“Yes, perfect. See you tomorrow eight am then. And once again, thank you very much”, she said as she left the office and closed the door behind her. Hopper decided to stay there for a little while to think about everything that just happened. God, he’s going to work with Joyce Byers.

THE Joyce Horowitz.

He still couldn’t believe it.

The two of them first met in fifth grade, it was their first day of middle school. A girl with a long braid walked into the class and decided to sit down next to little Jimmy. But before that happened, she accidentally spilled her apple juice on his shirt. Everyone around them laughed.

That didn’t change the fact that over the next days they became best friends. The two urchins always spent their afternoons together at the playground or in the forest building… something. Their friendship was strong, but it all seemed to change once high school came around.

Building stick castles turned into sharing cigarettes between fifth and sixth period. One day Joyce and now Hopper (because there were two Jim’s in their grade) bought cigarettes from the senior’s and then ran from Mr. Cooper after he caught them smoking under the stairs. They ended up hiding in the boy’s restroom and making out. He remembered that moment as if it was yesterday. 

After that “incident” they suddenly were boyfriend and girlfriend. Their cigarette sharing turned into make out sessions and listening to their favorite music in his car. Unfortunately this teenage dream lasted only until their prom. That night he told her he’s moving to New York to become a policeman. Joyce was obviously heartbroken and ran off. They hadn’t had a proper talk since.

But that would change very soon.


	2. A big favor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the year 1971. The young policeman Jim Hopper and his secretary Joyce Horowitz are investigating the mysteries of their hometown Hawkins. But there are a lot more struggles they will have to deal with (detective AU)

January 25th, 1971

The morning wasn’t easy for Joyce Horowitz. Being a single mother meant getting up every day at five in the morning and dealing with a lot of chaos, starting with hundreds of toys laying on the ground to drawings on the kitchen wall. Her son was a little goofball she couldn’t leave alone for more than a second. Of course she loved her Jonathan with all of her heart, but that meant that she didn’t have any time left for herself. 

This day was going to be different. It was the first time Joyce would go to work since she had her child, which meant that they would be separated for a couple of hours. Of course she preferred to stay at home, but rent and food didn’t pay for themselves. Maybe it would have been easier if the father would support them financially, but he didn’t even know he is a father. He probably never will.

Before starting her new job at the local police station, Joyce left her son with her old friend from school Karen, who also had a four year old child, and drove to her work place. It felt weird doing it again. But hey, what other choice did she have?

Joyce sat in her car and listened to the radio. They played the song “Everything is beautiful” by Ray Stevens. She didn’t know why, but for some reason it always made her smile whenever she heard it. Suddenly the woman’s thoughts wandered to how her life at work would be like. Although the fact that her ex-boyfriend was her boss made it all awkward, she was pretty excited to start a new chapter of her life. Who knew what surprises it would bring?

“Shit!”, she suddenly screamed as she parked her green Ford and took a look at her watch. Joyce was ten minutes late on her first goddamn day. How pathetic. 

Ignoring the fact, she rushed through the door and hoped for no one to notice her short absence. The job was just way too important for her. Next time Joyce needed to get up even earlier to get on time.

“Good morning Miss Horowitz. You’re late”, Hopper greeted her in a rather unpleasant way, looking at the big clock hanging next to the entrance.

“Please don’t call me that”, Joyce just responded and headed over to her desk. There were multiple hair strains that were loose from her messy bun, which covered up her face making her look less exhausted than she already was. That didn’t change the fact that Jim saw her dark circles under her big brown eyes.

“You had a bad night?”, he asked staring at her, which made her feel uncomfortable.

“How about we change the topic and you tell me what to do?”, she hissed and looked directly at him. 

Hopper sighed. “Alright, I see someone’s not in a good mood. Let’s see… pretty much all you need to do is to look at the files and check if there’s something worthy my time.”

The young woman needed a moment to proceed the new information. “And how am I supposed to know this?”

“Trust your gut. Any other questions?”, he wanted this conversation to be over as quickly as possible. Jim had enough stuff to deal with that day and the last thing he wanted to do in this moment was to talk to the one person who he didn’t have a clue how to talk to.

She answered with a quiet “no” and started to look through the files. By that time Hopper already left her side, grabbed himself a chocolate donut and disappeared behind the big wooden doors. 

Well, now she was completely alone, still having literally no clue what to do. Trust your gut? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Her first day at work and she didn’t even know what to fucking do. Once again, PATHETIC. But of course she’s not going to ask him for help, she’s way too proud to do that. Besides she knew that Hopper didn’t want to talk to her either.

Joyce decided to just start and see where it goes. Maybe that would help in one way or another. She looked at the first document and almost started to laugh at loud in front of everyone. “Case #384632 The missing garden gnome?” Who goes to the police to report a damn garden gnome? The people in Hawkins were in fact idiots.

The hours passed by very quickly to her surprise. Pretty much every file was simply irrelevant or too funny to be true. But then Joyce suddenly stumbled across something interesting: “Reports of Russian spies in Hawkins.” Was that worthy Hopper’s time?

After a while she finally decided to talk to him about that and got up from her chair. The whole way over to his office she kept thinking to herself: “Is it even important? What if he’ll just laugh at me?”

Joyce knocked on his door. Goosebumps covered her whole body. She dealt with anxiety before in the past, but that was different. It was important to her to make a good first impression.

“Come in!”, Hopper shouted from the other side and she slowly opened the wooden door. For a second she hesitated to move, but after a while she finally got up the courage to say something.

“I may have found something worthy your time, Mister Hopper.”

“Please, just call me Hopper”, he interrupted her and stretched out his hand. Joyce handed him the file without adding a single word. Jim didn’t even look at her.

There was the awkward silence again. While his gaze was focused on the sheets of paper, she just stood in the door waiting for him to say anything. Or for anything to happen at all. In the meantime her thoughts travelled to a completely different place, starting from her son and how he’s feeling to what she would make for dinner.

His sudden movement almost gave her a heart attack. Joyce was confused and surprised at the sight of Hopper shutting the door behind her and commanding her too sit down and stay quiet.

“Have you told anyone about this case?”, he asked and seemed to be honestly concerned.

“No, I only showed it to you. W- why?”, her voice started to crack due to her shock and nervousness.

“Listen to me carefully Joyce. I’ve been working on this behind Chief Howard’s back and no one, literally no one can find out about it. Do you understand?”

The young woman wasn’t aware of the importance of this document. It turned out that her gut was right after all.

“But why-“

“I said do you understand me?”, Hopper’s eyes were full of panic and worry. It scared Joyce to see him at this state.

“I understand Hopper. But why the hell is it such a secret?”, at this point she wanted to know everything. Is Mr. Howard a Russian spy and Hopper could loose his job if he tried to prove it? Or maybe he was one and wanted to destroy all the evidence?

“Because my boss, Chief Howard, specifically told me to not dig deeper into it. End of discussion.”

It wasn’t the end of discussion for Joyce. She found this damn file and she deserved to know everything about it. Or at least a small detail.

“Please tell me what it’s about. It can’t be that bad”, she begged with puppy eyes, but without success. Hopper just stood up, placed his strong hands on the desk and looked her deep in her eyes. She could tell exactly that he was furious at this point.

“Miss Horowitz, you’re only working here because I made you a favor. I assume that you don’t want to get fired on your first day, am I right?”

He was right. Joyce didn’t deserve to be a part of the case and she didn’t even deserve this job. He was fucking right. 

Without giving him an answer, she quickly left his office and tried to hold back her tears. Why did she have the need to cry right now? Everything Hopper said was true. She kept telling herself in her head to breathe. Just breathe. You’ll get over it.

After Joyce finally cooled down and drew attention to herself by standing in the middle of the station for longer than necessary, she proceeded to go to her desk and continued to do her work, trying to act like nothing happened between her and her boss, although that wasn’t true.

XXXXXXX

“FUCK”, Hopper hissed to himself after the door was finally closed. If Joyce would say one word too much to the wrong person he would be busted. NO ONE can find out that he’s still working on this case. How did this document even get on this pile? Didn’t he leave it in his drawer?

Still very nervous and concerned, he decided to take one more look at the first page. Just one look.

HAWKINS POLICE DEPARTMENT  
HAWKINS, IN  
INCIDENT REPORT: 734853  
REPORT ENTERED: 08/17/1969 11:38:22

Before Jim could even finish reading the introduction part of the file, he stood up from his chair and lighted a cigarette, although it was strictly forbidden in Howard’s office. But it’s taste made him loosen up a little bit and forget his worries for a while. 

“You should be more careful, Hopper”, he whispered to himself, while thinking of a way to keep on working on this case without getting caught. He was in deep shit.

Right after he took a last drag of his Camel, he opened the window to get rid of the smell and sat down in front of the case again. Who knows, maybe there was some new evidence or a small, hidden detail he missed?

Hopper’s fingers glided through the paper page by page. It was almost like an addiction. With every second passing by he got deeper and deeper into the case. It happened every single time he read this document, even after four months of working on it.

How did this all even start? From what he heard from the older policeman is that two years before a man called Lonnie Byers ran into the station, panicking and screaming that the Russians were attacking or something like that. Everyone thought that he was just a freak, but after officer Powell decided to listen to what Mr. Byers had to say, it turned out that his evidence was pretty convincing. 

“There were a lot of cars with Russian plates parked on the Hawkins Lab’s parking spot recently. Also I started noticing that there were multiple electrician vans driving around the town, but none of them seemed to do anything. They just looked around and drove away.”

Nobody knew how he found out all this stuff, but the former chief of this police department, Mr. Brens, started to look deeper into the case and found a lot of evidence and new questions. Everything seemed to be connected in one way or another to the Hawkins Lab and a man working there called Martin Brenner. 

This lead to the events of November 17th, 1969. Chief Brens was so close to finally (maybe) solve this case, which occupied him for the past three months. He tried everything to convince Mr. Brenner to have a conversation with him, but he denied it every time. The only possibility was to break into that lab.

Chief Brens died that day trying to solve this mystery. Right after he broke in, he got shot by a guard. That’s the reason why it’s forbidden for Hopper or anyone else to work on it anymore. Because they could pay with their life as well.

Since that exact day the case had been declared unsolvable. But there was one man Jim wanted to interrogate before he could finally let this go: Lonnie Byers.

What if he hadn’t told everything or he found out something new during the past one and a half years? Hopper needs to get to this man somehow. He MUST talk to him before he can even think about letting this case go. 

XXXXXXX

It’s been multiple minutes since Joyce had that unpleasant encounter with Hopper. She tried her best not to think about it and to continue doing her work. That’s why she was here after all. Every other file she found in the meantime seemed to be rather irrelevant, which was good considering the fact that she wanted to avoid her boss for as long as even possible.

That didn’t work out very well, because he suddenly stormed out of his office and quickly headed towards her desk. What the hell did he want now?

“Can I ask you for a favor?”, Hopper asked, keeping his voice very quiet, so quiet that even Joyce barely understood what he said.

“Excuse me? After how you treated me just about an hour ago you’re asking me for a fucking favor?”, she also decided to stay quiet to not go through their talk in his office again.

Before he answered, Jim looked nervously around the station to see if anyone was watching or listening to their conversation.

“I know and I’m sorry Joyce. But don’t forget that I made you a big favor too, you remember? Please.”

It was weird watching him ask- or much rather BEG for something. That’s not the Jimmy Joyce used to know in high school. But something about his ocean blue eyes made her weak.

“First you need to tell me what it is, they I say if I agree to it or not”, she replied with a poker face. Her whole skin was once again covered in goosebumps. 

“I need you to talk to a man, Lonnie Byers. He may know something about the case that I’m working on, the one you handed to me an hour ago. I’ll prepare all the questions and I’ll give you all the information you will need if you agree to help me on this.”

Shit. Joyce didn’t expect to be suddenly involved in a big conspiracy or whatever that was on her first day at work. Was that even a part of the job as a secretary? What if she screwed it all up and someone would find out about Hopper’s secret plans?

“Why do you need ME to do this job? Can’t you just do it yourself?”

He sighed and looked around him once again, placing his strong hands right in front of her. Again.

“This will sound bad, but I think that he could say more to a nice woman instead of a policeman”, he replied with a slightly cheeky tone.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean Hopper?!” Joyce felt offended by his rather unfitting comment. She was supposed to flirt with a random guy to get information for the police?

“God, I know how this sounds Joyce. But trust me, it’s not gonna be that bad. Please, I really need your help on that.”

What was she supposed to answer. On the other side she really needed the job- or much rather the money- to support her small family, but on the other side she had some dignity and she didn’t want to seduce a man just to use him and get payed for it. Oh god, Joyce really wanted a cigarette right now.

“I’m sorry, but I need some time to think. Is that ok?”

“Of course, take as much time as you need”, Hopper smiled to not seem to harsh anymore and disappeared again. She actually wondered what he was doing behind the closed doors.

After she made sure that no one saw her, Joyce grabbed a pack of Camels out of her bag and made her way to the front door. She sat down on the cold stairs and lighted her cigarette. It felt so good. It was almost as if all the stress just left her body and disappeared in thin air. Taking another drag, she started to consider her answer to Hopper’s offer. 

Pro and contra list. That’s what she always did whenever there was a difficult decision she had to make. Inside of her head she created a whole chart with some bullet points and notes. But even after working on it for five minutes, she still didn’t have a clear answer.

Just when the young woman wanted to stand up and head back to her desk, a man suddenly appeared next to her, scaring the hell out of her too. She jumped up and let her Camel fall to the ground.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you”, Hopper stated as he grabbed his own pack of cigarettes and placed one in his mouth. Joyce didn’t know that he was still smoking.  
“I’m sorry too, I shouldn’t have left”, she tried to excuse herself for her short absence.

“It’s ok, you’re allowed to do that. Besides it’s good for your brain if you grab some fresh air once in a while.”

He wasn’t wrong. But Joyce started to notice that something was off about him. Maybe it was his calmness, which she didn’t have the chance to see before. It felt weird, but then again nice to see this side of him. A side she didn’t know yet.

“Well, thank you”, she looked at him and gave him a little smile. Perhaps this tough policeman wasn’t that bad after all. 

“By the way I still need to give you an answer to your question before”, Joyce started, hoping to hear a new argument from Hopper.

“You know that you don’t have to give it to me yet? Take all the time you want. I’m aware of the fact that it’s a lot to process.”

The woman sighed. She knew exactly what she wanted.

“But I want to give you the answer now. I will help you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WAZZUP Y'ALL!  
> The next chapter of my fanfiction mega project is here! Please let me know what you think about it and if you want to you can of course leave some suggestions in the comments down below :)  
> As always I'm sorry if there are any spelling errors or grammatical mistakes. English isn't my mothertongue and I'm still learing.  
> With that being said thank you for reading my fanfiction and I really hope that you liked it!


	3. Mr. Byers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hopper and Joyce are still working on the case, but without any new leads. But there is a person they haven't talked to yet: Lonnie Byers.

February 4th

The past few days passed by pretty quickly and without any serious events. Joyce continued to work as a secretary and as Hopper’s secret helper on the Russian spies case. But on the other hand Chief Howard returned and complicated their plans. Hopper was no longer the head of the department and returned to his boring files and stupid cases. Just a day ago he had to save Eleanor Gillespie from a owl. It was pathetic.

But that day there could be some changes. Joyce would meet with Lonnie Byers after a hard day at work and if she would find out something new, it could be the breakthrough for both of their careers. More serious cases and most importantly: more money. 

Hopper wanted to talk to her so badly, but there was no chance to do so at work. They had already discussed all the questions she had to ask and how she should act in front of this guy. They even gave her a undercover name: Jocelyn Heinz. That didn’t change the fact that Jim was worried that she would screw it all up, or maybe he was actually worried that something bad would happen to Joyce. 

Once both of them headed out of the police department to “grab something to eat”, they quickly drove to a local bar and had one more talk before the big interrogation. 

“Do you know what to say? Have you prepared all your lines?”

“Of course I did, Hop. You don’t have to be so worried about me. I can do it.” She tried to calm him down, but no matter what she tried to do, nothing seemed to work on him. The woman was scared as shit too, but she tried not to show him to not freak him out even more.

“I know, it’s just- it’s really important to me. This has to go well”, he sighed and gave Joyce a short glance. He did trust her, but she had no experience with this kind of stuff.

She decided to stay quiet and looked out of the window. The snow covered the trees and building like a soft blanket. Although she loved the view, the stress didn’t allow her to enjoy it. Instead she tried to at least forget her troubles and focus her mind on anything else.

And there it was. This song. “Everything is beautiful” by Ray Stevens, playing on the radio.

“Could you please turn up the volume?”, she asked with a shaky voice. 

“You like that song?”, Hopper asked and immediately made it a little bit louder. He actually kind of enjoyed it too.

Without answering his question, Joyce just looked and him and smiled. He could be an emotionless jerk sometimes, but somewhere deep down, under thousands of layers, he had a heart. The woman didn’t even know why, but this small moment made her happy for the first time that day.

The rest of the trip they spent singing along to the song and laughing at each other’s singing skills. Neither of them were great musicians, but at least he made her smile. The feeling of guilt that he had to involve her into something dangerous made his heart ache. But Jim realized that he was longing to spend time with that amazing woman, although just a while ago they weren’t on good terms.

After what felt like ten minutes they finally arrived at the bar. They had to park a couple of building away, but the big neon sign “Chill Rabbit Roadhouse”, which provided the whole street with light, confirmed that they were at the right place. 

Hopper stayed in the car to not raise any suspicion, while Joyce headed over to the established meeting place. On the way there she also put on some red lipstick and opened the upper button of her blouse, she had to get this man to talk somehow. 

Once she opened the door and entered the bar, Joyce started to look around to find Mr. Byers. _He has dark, short hair and a face you just want to punch._ Hopper’s description wasn’t very helpful, but he promised her that she will understand once she would see him. Still very confused, the young woman made her way to the bartender to ordered herself a glass of whiskey. Maybe that would loosen her up a little bit.

“You’re a whiskey girl too, eh?”, a unfamiliar voice behind her asked. Joyce slowly turned around and immediately knew who she was talking to: Lonnie Byers.

“I guess. I just want something strong after a long day at work”, she smiled and gave the man a flirty look. She wasn’t interested in him at all ( _he has a face you just want to punch_ ), but if that would help her get the information she needs, she might as well play a little bit with him.

“Oh, I forgot to introduce myself! Lonnie Byers, and you are?”, the man stretched out his hand to kiss Joyce’s, which he did.

“My name is Joy- Jocelyn Heinz!”, Joyce quickly realized her mistake and tried to fix it, but instead it turned out very weird. Damn it!

“Joy Jocelyn Heinz?”, Mr. Byers asked and smiled at her. Oh shit, she needed to say something!

“Uh, my name is Jocelyn Heinz, but my friends call me Joy. It’s just a nickname.” _Bingo!_ She thought to herself.

“I like it. You do seem like a _joyful_ woman, if you know what I mean”, Lonnie winked and made Joyce blush a little bit. This interrogation could turn out better than expected.

After Joyce finally received her desired drink, the two of them headed over to a free table in the back, so no one could interrupt their conversation. While Mr. Byers sat in front of her, she was finally able to look at him more closely. His hair looked pretty neat, almost as if he just left the hair salon. His white shirt was very clean and his beard freshly shaved, but his perfume was sticking out the most. Coconut? Maybe not, but it was definitely something exotic. Joyce liked that.

“So… why are we actually here Miss Heinz? A lot of women want to get to know me better, but they usually don’t call me without me giving them my number.”

“Well, I’m here because I wanted to ask you about your… let’s call it theory that there are Russian spies in Hawkins”, Joyce asked slightly nervously. Was it too early?

“Wait, are you working for the cops?” She could clearly hear that Lonnie’s voice sounded worried.

“No, I don’t. I’m just… interested. I also think that there’s something weird going on in this town and I would like to find out what. But I am working on my own.”

The man in front of her seemed to believe her. Damn, it turned at she’s a pretty good liar!

“I see. I’m going to be honest with you, Miss Heinz. I tried talking to the police before, but they don’t seem to care about shit. They just assumed I’m a freak who tries to waste their time. But I’m not like this. These pigs will see it sooner or later.”

“I understand, but what made you believe that there a spies? Did you see or hear something suspicious?”, Joyce needed to know more details. Him complaining about the police didn’t help at all.

“I saw a lot of cars with Russian plates parked on the Hawkins Lab’s parking spot a while ago. Also I started noticing that there were vans driving around the town, but none of them seemed to do anything. They just looked around and drove away after a while. I didn’t really know what to do about that, so I told the police. After they decided to ignore me, I pretty much let go of this thing. But then I saw that man: Martin Brenner. He’s one of those weirdos working at the Lab. One evening I was driving past an old gas station, when I saw him talking with a guy I’ve never seen before. But the car he got out of had Russian plates. You see where I’m going?”

“I do. Well, thank you for telling me that, Mr. Byers.” Joyce was surprised about him opening up so quickly. His evidence was pretty strong and he didn’t seem to be lying. But most importantly, she had a new lead: That Brenner guy. Hopper will be so proud of her!

“Please, just call me Lonnie. And may I asked why you’re even interested in that? Did you see something suspicious too?”

Shit. What the hell was she supposed to say? Hop didn’t prepare her for that kind of questions. She had to say something, otherwise she would raise unwanted suspicion.

“Ummm… I also saw these strange vans and… I’m studying journalism. If this turns out to be something big, it would help me with my career. That’s why I really wanted to talk to you, Lonnie.”

Joyce took a long drag of her whiskey. Damn she REALLY was a good liar.

The man just stared at her and smiled. He believed her. Suddenly he got his hand off of his Martini and placed it on hers. She wanted to pull it away, but she couldn’t. What if there’s even more to find out?

“How about we take this conversation to a nicer place? My home is just two streets away.”

Oh no. Even if she wanted to she couldn’t leave the bar with this man. Hopper was still waiting for her in his car, besides she had a son who was waiting for her at Karen’s place.

“I’m sorry, but not today.”

“Please, I insist”, he cut her off and looked her directly in her eyes. Something about him was unbelievably tempting, like a mystery she wanted to solve. Maybe if there were different circumstances, she would spend the night at his place.

“I’m really sorry, but I have to get up early tomorrow. How about we meet again on Friday?”, although it was all just an act, Joyce really started to develop feelings for Lonnie. Was it his smile, confidence or just the fact that he found her attractive?

“Alright then. Friday 8pm here. I’ll be waiting for you, Joy.” The man stood up, gave her one more look and headed to the door. Joyce finished her drink, trying to process what happened in the past couple of minutes. Did she really have a date?

After a while she finally decided to pay the bill and go back to Hopper. The “mission” was a big success and she couldn’t wait to tell him. Although it was stupid, the woman really got invested into this case. It gave her usually boring life some spice, a small little extra that made her feel special in some way.

By the time Joyce left the bar, it was already pitch black outside. Only the huge red neon sign brought some light into the street , guiding her back to the car. She kind of regretted not taking a warmer coat with her, because goosebumps covered her whole body.

She was so relieved when she opened the door and stepped into the Hop's car, finally feeling warmth again.

“And how did it go?”, Hopper asked, turning off the radio to be able to understand her better.

“I found out something interesting. Lonnie saw that weird Brenner guy from the lab talking to a Russian guy at a gas station a while ago. We should definitely talk to him!”, she replied very quickly with a smile over her face. Joyce was really proud of herself.

“I don’t think that’s gonna be possible…” he sighed, running his hand through his hair.

“What? Why? I though that the Lab offered trips and stuff”, her voice became fragile and slightly disappointed.

“They haven’t offered that kinda stuff for a while now. Besides, Brens tried talking to him before and it didn’t end well”, he answered, trying to not sound too harsh.

“I understand. I’m sorry”, now her voice started to crack and she felt ashamed for some reason. It wasn’t such a big deal, was it? Why the hell did she feel guilty now?

“Please, Joyce, don’t be. I’m honestly grateful for your help on this case. You did find out something new, that’s great!”, Hopper looked at her and gave her a small smile, but she wasn’t even looking. Her eyes were focused on the cars passing by.

Suddenly he grabbed her hand, which was placed on her knee and turned his whole body towards her. She was shocked, but this made Joyce finally look into his ocean blue eyes instead of the traffic.

“Hey, thank you for your help. I mean it. I wouldn’t be able to do this without you”, Jim whispered and felt the cold of her body pass over to him. He wasn’t used to seeing her being so lost. 

Joyce didn’t reply to his comment for a while, instead she gave him a soft smile and tried to hold back her tears. 

“Well, he definitely did open up more in front of me than he would if I were a guy or a cop”, she said after a while and Hopper’s hand stopped squeezing hers.

“What do you mean?”, he asked, trying to not sound to brazen.

“We talked a lot and he asked me out.”

Shit. Jim wasn’t really pleased with her answer, especially because it was Lonnie Byers, THAT Lonnie Byers she was talking about. He hated that son of a bitch and he couldn’t stand the thought of Joyce going out with that jerk. But what was he supposed to say? I forbit you do go out with him? He isn’t her father or brother… or boyfriend. 

“Really? And what did you say?” He hoped that he didn’t sound too judging or even worse: jealous.

“I said yes. He did seem pretty nice”

This was getting even worse. _Pretty nice?_ There are a lot of _pretty nice_ guys in Hawkins and Byers wasn’t one of them. Shit, what was Jim supposed to say now?

“The guy with the face you just want to punch, eh?” 

Joyce smirked and seemed to be slightly annoyed by this comment. “He isn’t that bad!”

“Joyce, he’s a playboy. I’ve seen him multiple times hitting on women and then standing them up. He isn’t worth you!”, he snapped. Hopper probably shouldn’t have said the last part.

“We’ll see about that”, she replied and made it clear that their conversation was over at that point. The joy in her face disappeared and her eyes were focused on the cars again. 

Damn, Jim screwed up big this time. After years of no contact and rather not getting along with each other he finally gained her trust back. It was great to bond with on old (girl) friend he knew for ages again. Joyce Horowitz became his new reason why he even wanted to come to work every single morning. He loved it when she greeted him and handed him a nice warm cup of coffee every. single. day. 

Alright, it wasn't the time and place to think about that now. She has a son who needs to be picked up and put to sleep. Hopper had no one he would go back to, but the need of a cold bottle of beer in his hands became even stronger. This is what he deserved after that long day.

To get rid of the weird tension between them, Joyce just turned on the radio again and continued to stare out of the window, trying not to fall asleep. She was mad. She was tired. She was disappointed. She was trying to hold back her tears once again.

Hopper on the other hand had only alcohol on his mind. Although he was a cop, he drove 80 mph in a 50 zone. But before he would finally get it, he stopped by the department and let Joyce out. She didn’t even say good bye or looked at him. She simply left and headed over to her green Pinto.

At last he did arrive in his gross trailer, which he didn’t clean up in ages. Clothes and empty bottles were scattered all over the place. He didn’t even give a shit about that. He didn’t give a shit about anything.

His legs automatically guided Jim to his fridge and his hands automatically opened up a new bottle of beer, although he promised himself thousands of times he would stop, but he never did. Instead he flushed down his feeling and frustration with what felt like gallons of alcohol. That seemed to be the only solution. 

What was the reason today? He hated to admit it, but it was Joyce. The woman made his heart break without even being together. Were they even friends? And why the hell does she make him feel this way? He could have every single woman in town, but not Joyce. She was different. She was better. For some reason he could imagine himself opening up to her and talk about anything, which would make her the first person he could do that with. 

But she chose Lonnie Byers over him. A jerky playboy who will only use her and break her even more. Joyce must have been hurt before, otherwise she wouldn’t have to raise her child alone. Who was even the father? Doesn’t matter anyway, nothing matters. 

Hopper drank bottle after bottle, after his fourth his memory became blurry and he might have as well taken some pills, which his mother used to take. He didn’t remember anything more from that night, but at some point he fell asleep on his kitchen floor. 

He had a huge problem he couldn’t deal with. Not yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay I'm finally back after all! I'm sorry that it took so long for me to upload a new chapter, but I lost my motivation to continue writing until today. I hope that I'll be able to write more soon!  
> As always I'm sorry if there are any spelling errors or grammatical mistakes. English isn't my mothertongue and I'm still learing.  
> With that being said thank you for reading my fanfiction and I really hope that you liked it!

**Author's Note:**

> YOOO WAZZUP I'M BACK!  
> I'm very excited about this little project I just started! Also I promise that there will be a longer chapter coming soon (you can treat this one as a prologue).  
> As always I'm sorry if there are any spelling errors or grammatical mistakes. English isn't my mothertongue and I'm still learing.  
> With that being said thank you for reading my fanfiction and I really hope that you liked it!


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